Nuclear Disarmament presumably includes a large number of people who are not interested in politics. For them it is enough to believe that nuclear weapons are horrible, and that...

Beer and pop Colin Welch T promised to dig out some worthwhile I stuff for you from Professor S. H. Beer's Britain Against Itself (Faber, £9.50). I'll try, but it's not an...

Auberon Waugh selects more wines for the Spectator Wine Club on page 36.

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 112f1 7 . 7 5 E18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 1121.35.50 £37 . 00 £49.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made...

I I seems odd on the face of it that Miss Rhona Ritchie should ever be pro- ,seeuted. According to the Attorney- eneral, 'her behaviour in the Crown's v `' d ie w was more...

The Muggeridges submit Auberon Waugh O n Sunday, in the church of St Teresa, Taunton, we sang a hymn whose words, written out in the hymnbook, went like this: 'Kum-ba-ya, 0...

h h l e.tolas von Hoffman Washington Washington e news was not that President Reagan Th , had decided for the second time to pro- ,i ' e ed with the MX missile — they have...

Murray Sayle Shanghai R evolutions revolve, dynasties fall, but bureaucrats know how to look after themselves. Peking, which did next to nothing to bring Marxism to China, is...

Gita Mehta M y earliest political memory is of being sent as a child to watch Mahatma Gandhi's funeral cortege pass through the streets of Delhi. Although I was only five years...

Shiva Naipaul T he dark green plain, sliced through by a broad, orange-coloured arc of the Ganges, was dissected into shining rec- tangles by fields of rice which stretched as...

Cambridge Cambridge the dank chill of Cambridge, I thought • el f a book I have recently read, beginn- in g: Ill the month of July of the year 1348, ue tween the feasts of St...

Thomas Szasz M r Auberon Waugh rightly criticises (23 October) the clause in the new Mental Health Bill extending the franchise to compulsorily hospitalised mental pa- tients....

Blood libels Sir: Surely Paul Johnson is mistaken when he asserts in his article on the press (20 November) that the heavy coverage by the Western media of the killings in...

Sir: I have been 'with' Christopher Pc n n i(er l (metaphorically speaking) for longer r 1 " — as , can accurately remember, so I ,r,, ec i therefore, surprised to find...

Sir: The Times, as Auberon Waugh claims, may be a boring newspaper (27 November). But inaccurate, wrong and mischief-maker it certainly is not. It was once brought into utter...

the Lebanon was invaded by Palestinian Moslem terrorists,' writes Paul Johnson (20 November). This is an exact example of the sort of slanderous bias which he suggests is being...

readers will be surprised at Auberon Waugh's un- balanced and intemperate attack on the Times (27 November). But few, I imagine, will not be, like me, astonished at your...

Sir: A few weeks ago I visited the site of a mass grave in the Turkish Cypriot zone of Cyprus, containing the bodies of victims whose ages ranged from eight months to 80. This...

Gavin Stamp The Victoria and Albert Museum: The History of its Building John Physick (Phaidon/Christie's £20) I n alMost every country except Britain, te n in , us einn...

Richard Ingrams Hymns for Today's Church (Hodder & Stoughton £6.95) rrhe Church of England's hymn - book, 1 whichever variety you choose, is a repository of religious poems...

Mark Blackett-Ord The Victorian Bar J. R. Lewis (Robert Hale £9.95) ew full Victorian courtrooms were! 4 en The cartoons in Punch and the steel- sh grav ings in The...

John Martin Robinson English Cottages Tony Evans and Candida Lycett Green, introduced by John Betjeinan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Tphei tu e cu r lt e o sciu ft e...

P. J. Kavanagh visions from San Francisco Bay Czeslaw Milosz ( Carcanet New Press £6.95) e v er since his publication of The Captive bn, Mi nd in the 1950's Czeslaw Milosz, i i...

Patrick Skene Catling writes about some recent illustrators of children's books. I 've just spent a terrible, long n i g h !, sleeping, or trying to sleep, with a" Oliphaunt,...

Gillian Avery The Borrowers Avenged Mary Norton Illustrated by Pauline Baynes (Kestrel £5.50) The Song of Pentecost W. J. Corbett Illustrated by Martin Ursell (Methuen £5.95)...

Jonathan LOake Ancient Enemies Elizabeth North (Cape £7.95) e 'c ock-up theory as Petra, Elizabeth North's narrator, calls it, might be ap - Plie d to much contemporary...

Standard formula Peter Ackroyd Gandhi ('A', Odeon Leicester Square) 4 Jo orbandar State. Some Years Later.' 1 So many years later, in fact, that the characters have to...

Measured steps Jann Parry London Contemporary Dance The ° exultant leap in Paul Taylor's Espion ade. is shown in slow motion before the title quence of a Dance in America...

Betrayal Rodney Milnes Semele (Covent Garden) I feel a bit diffident about my approach 1 to this one, having rather to my surprise been employed as advertising copywriter...

Daily grind Mark Amory The Slab Boys (Royal Court) Still Life (Royal Court) Camelot (Apollo Victoria) to grasp Shakespeare, it is by no Ine ar/5 0 - . that Phil is talented...

Flying colours John McEwen rr he biennial John Moores Exhibition to painters what the Booker is to wri- ters — opened last week at its traditional venue, the Walker Art...

Posted Taki New' T didn't see John De LOreall on I Concorde this time but I did ge t a l glimpse of Tiny Rowlands. By God, wh at h ; sinister-looking character. No wonder '...

Untapped Richard Ingrams I t is nearly a year now since the BBC appointed a new Director-General in the shape of Alastair Milne. I am not sure what Mr Milne has been doing...

S crubbing along Jeffrey Bernard iu st -e word. This is not to knock the film, W w er ,, li • Young people today have got the it i2 ;" scrubbe r ' all wrong and Miss Zetterl-...

Born Tired Patrick Marnham J ournalism is an occupation for under- achievers. It attracts the idle, those who consider that the world owes them a living, and people with a...

• v ited Jaspistos reports: Competitors were in for' to provide, gravely or g aily, the word s new Australian national a nthem. In spite of their own national C,snol"P:ot tion...

Serendipity Raymond Keene W ith Christmas approaching, I w ill devote this week's article to a sum- mary of books that would serve well as presents. Some of them I have...

No. 1247: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 • • • No. 1247: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 • • • Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to P r°61.1 c l ee s, a piece of entertaining prose of 50 O r da the first word a...

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A pri ze of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution Pened on 20 December. Entries to: Crossword 586, The N)ec ator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. r i e...

Spectator Wine Club Auberon Waugh L ast month I promised to move down- market and recommend some cheaper wines and so I have, but the unexpectedly enthusiastic response to the...

7 Park Street, Bristol BSI 5NG Telephone: 0272 214141 UNIT PRICE INC ORDER VALUE PRODUCT SIZE VAT NO. UNIT C6tes du Rhone 12BTS £33.12 CASE 1979 6BTS £16.56 1/2CASE 46300791...

O nly a few days after Sir Geoffrey Howe said that the exchange rate for sterling L we uld be set by market forces, the clearing 'auks, prompted by the Government, rais- e d...

VENICE by Lord Snowdon and Derek Hart. Privately published by Olivetti. Anthony Bir- chall, 5 Valeside, Throckley,• Newcastle-upon- Tyne, NEI5 9LA. CARDS OF IDENTITY by Nigel...

E ach set of three questions leads to a Li place somewhere in the British Isles. Remember the three questions all have the same answer. 1) Adam Smith was magisterially in-...

ach issue of The Spectator until the L . /Christmas issue (18 December) will carry a clue. Each clue is made up of three separate questions, designed (except where stated) to...

Answer How does each question lead to the answer 9 Name . Address . Company (if eligible for special prize) Important: Please keep this answer form, as you will need to...

Treasure Hunt Set by Christopher Booker T his issue of The Spectator has the ninth clue in the Great SPe c : tator Treasure Hunt. The Treasure Hunt will last for two ftl" f...